Katy Perry Mermaid Planking Draws Ire From Gaga’s Little Monsters

Only Katy Perry could make planking controversial. At about 1:45AM ET she posted the twitpic above of herself dressed as a mermaid, ostensibly on some sort of set, in this tweet:

In less than an hour, the TwitPic’s comments were swarmed by angry Gaga fans. Remember Lady Gaga’s “Yuyi the Mermaid” character from “Edge of Glory” her next single? How could Katy copy Gaga, these fans wonder, generally by tweeting the hashtag #KatyCopyGaga (and, not infrequently, referring to Perry as a b—ch). Pastiche is an essential part of pop iconography, and Gaga herself has been accused of much more specific and serious appropriation, but try telling that to her superfans.

Gaga is an expert at directing her fanbase, whether for self-promotion or the “Get Well” video for Clarence Clemons. This independent call to arms (call to paws?) among Little Monsters, ostensibly acting on Gaga’s behalf, is hardly different from, say, hacking Amy Winehouse’s website. Apparently, this is what happens when you (appear to) copy a singer on the Internet.